Product Tip Tuesday: How automated license reclamation saves you time

Tired of wrestling with software licenses? You’re not alone!

We wanted to dive into how to unlock a game-changing technique that can free up your schedule and your budget: automated license reclamation.

Let’s explore how implementing automated license reclamation can save you significant time and streamline your software asset management.

The problem: Time wasted on manual license management

For many, managing software licenses is a decidedly manual affair. It involves a tedious cycle of tracking who has access to what, often relying on error-prone spreadsheets that quickly become outdated. Identifying inactive users can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. 

Then comes the painstaking process of manually revoking licenses and reassigning them to new users who actually need them. Let’s not forget the awkward emails or calls chasing down individuals who no longer require specific software.

This manual approach isn’t just annoying; it’s a significant drain on your time. Time that could be spent on strategic initiatives, resolving critical IT issues, or simply enjoying a less frantic workday. The inefficiency also leads to potential delays in granting access to new team members and can contribute to unnecessary software costs.

The solution: Automation to the rescue

Fortunately, there’s a smarter way. Automated license reclamation leverages technology to streamline this entire process, freeing you from the shackles of manual tracking and intervention. Here’s how it typically works:

The software you use (or a dedicated license management tool) continuously monitors how licenses are being used. Based on predefined criteria – like a set period of inactivity – the system automatically identifies licenses that are no longer actively in use. 

Once an inactive license is detected, the system can automatically revoke it, making it available for reassignment to someone who needs it. It’s a largely “hands-off” process that operates in the background, constantly optimizing your license utilization.

Key ways automated license reclamation saves you time

The beauty of automated license reclamation lies in its ability to reclaim your most valuable asset: time. 

For IT admins, this means ditching those tedious manual spreadsheets and tracking efforts – automated systems are way faster at spotting licenses that are just sitting there doing nothing. This makes the whole process of revoking and reassigning licenses much quicker and smoother. Plus, think about all those back-and-forth emails and conversations trying to figure out who needs what license; automation cuts down on that communication overhead significantly. 

Ultimately, this frees up your IT team to focus on more strategic tasks rather than getting bogged down in license management grunt work, leading to improved efficiency all around. 

And from a higher level, that saved time and increased efficiency directly translates to cost savings and a more optimized IT environment – something everyone can appreciate.

How license reclamation in BetterCloud saves you time and money

Reclaiming unused SaaS licenses typically requires a series of manual steps: disabling users in your SSO provider, coordinating with vendors, logging into each SaaS application to remove licenses, involving team leads for approval, and finally reporting the cost savings back to leadership. It’s a high-effort, low-yield task that simply doesn’t scale—especially across a large SaaS environment.

With BetterCloud, we’ve designed the license reclamation actions to be tightly integrated to the BetterCloud User Automation module to actually replace fragmented manual tasks with structured, policy-driven automations.

License reclamation with BetterCloud is directly supported with dozens of applications including ChatGPT, Box, Calendly, Asana, and more. 

To get started, you’ll start in the Spend Optimization module and navigate to the “Products” tab to view the All Products Usage page. You’ll notice eligible products for license reclamation in the column on the far right.

After selecting “View Opportunity”, BetterCloud will take you to a list of inactive users of the product. This is where you can decide whether those inactive users can actually be removed or not.

Depending on which application you’ve selected for license reclamation, BetterCloud will kick off a workflow automatically to remove the user(s), prompt you to build a workflow (if one is not made yet), or the option to remove the user from your Okta instance will appear.

When you first set up the license reclamation workflow, you’ll find a pre-defined workflow with several suggested Actions. Ultimately you’ll need to customize these Actions to fit your organization’s specific needs. 

For instance, you could add a user notification to automatically email end-users about upcoming access removal, or include a manager approval step to ensure a user’s manager approves the license removal before the workflow continues.

Most importantly, these automations go beyond just removing a user from your SSO or IdP. BetterCloud can directly revoke entitlements and licenses within the SaaS app itself, ensuring a full and final reclamation that reduces costs and security risks.

For the full step by step guide, check out this support article.

Ready to reclaim your time (and budget)?

Stop letting unused software licenses eat away at your valuable time and budget. Automated license reclamation is a game-changer, and with solutions like BetterCloud, it’s easier than ever to implement. Take the first step towards a more efficient and cost-effective IT environment today.

To fully optimize your SaaS spend for maximum savings, request a demo for BetterCloud today.